You climbed to the top of the monster's tower, you invaded the evil king's stronghold, you ascended into the realm of immortals; and it's all come to this: you and your teammates stand in the inner sanctum of the archvillain of your journey, your swords drawn and your guns loaded and your magic charged. Everything comes down to this. Everything. The past 39 hours of gameplay, so much grinding and learning and strategizing and preparing leads to this moment. And how that moment feels! Do you ever get emotional or tense or worked up when you finally reach that final challenge of a video game journey? When you're facing the Champion of the Elite Four, or after you've dropped down into Bowser's arena, or when Alduin appears and it's one-on-one winner-takes-all; do you get gripped by a particular excitement like all of this mattered? On top of that, do you think there's an particular thing that generates that excitement for you, like an emotional connection or the logic of awaiting the hardest fight yet? ---------------------------------------------------- Today I beat the most recent chapter of Final Fantasy Dissidia OO, and I felt that weird kind of a tension facing the very-very-final boss of the game (so far). My grip tightened, my breathing became shallow, my skin tingled, I almost entirely stopped blinking, like if I failed then my 51 teammates and I would all perish. The first time I felt it was playing the Donkey Kong GB, and the next time I remember feeling it was Yoshi's Island GBA. Both of those times, I was reflecting on the journey I had taken, the geographical distance I ran and jumped on my way so save one person, like suddenly it was all worth it. The most recent time aside from today was when I finished Pony Island or the Talos Principle. I honestly felt like I was saving the souls of everyone else running with me, or at least as many as I could save. I suppose the thing that breaks it for me most is a badly designed final challenge. If it's so easy that it doesn't feel like an accomplishment, or if it's too foolishly hard that I only get frustrated and immersion-broken, both of those can utterly destroy the emotional excitement for me. Cases-in-point: The Turing Test and Far Cry Primal respectively. Ten thousand ponies, running with me, reliant. Now we will escape!
How about Megaman final bosses??? Anyway, I felt that way with Megaman Xtreme two and all Fire Emblem games, especially since I play all Fire Emblem games on hard mode for the first playthrough. Though the Megaman Xtreme 2 ending sort of didn't make sense to me, for both games, I felt like I earned the right to know how that part of the story ended...and it felt good.
I personally have very bad luck with final bosses, in that a fair few of my favourite games have extremely lacklustre and disappointing final battles. Most of this comes to down to three main issues: improper story build up, absurd difficulty, or abandonment of central game mechanics. A final boss should always be an exciting climax in my opinion. Unfortunately, I've played several games that do a complete 180 on their expected boss for a "surprise villain" at the end, or simply a villain we don't know enough about. This often makes the fight feel forced or generally underwhelming. The boss should be built up, and twist villains often ruin the suspense and tension. There are cases where it can be done well, but I've never experienced it. Another thing that can ruin a boss for me is a difficulty spike. When I say this, I mean an extreme difficulty spike. A boss that is too hard and takes dozens of attempts breaks immersion and deflates the excitement for me. I'd rather a pathetically easy but cinematic boss over an impossible one. I'm fine with difficulty spikes as long as they are within reason. A solid example of this was the final boss of Splatoon's singleplayer campaign. The difficulty is ramped up, but it was still doable and felt genuinely difficult, even if I didn't die once on my first attempt. Finally, and the problem I seem to run into the most with final bosses, is the abandonment of central game mechanics for a gimmick, or worse, a brand new mechanic. Both Sly 1 and 2, two games in my personal top ten, fall victim to this problem, introducing new or nearly new playstyles for the climactic battle. It just leaves you wishing that you could put the skills you've honed throughout the game to the test, instead of having to learn a new and comparatively easy mechanic instead. Even with my final boss bad luck, I've had many great fights, such as Demise in LoZ: Skyward Sword, the Vita Mech in Xenoblade Chronicles X, and possibly one of my all-time favourites, the previously mentioned final boss of Splatoon, DJ Octavio. All of these bosses are exciting, the right level of difficulty, and make a point of putting your skills at the game's core content to the test against a genuinely threatening villain, all while backdropped by gorgeous setpieces that really make your actions feel important.
I remember when Dialga was impossible for me beat in PMD Sky on my first playthrough. I literally had just given up on it and kept playing the game while avoiding the story mode for a while. Now on my most recent playthrough, Dialga was a complete pushover, an easy fight.
Mfw I FINALLY beat Tabuu in SSBB after hours of not knowing how to roll was a face of hype, relief, and tears of joy.
I actually have a bad tendency to have my interest in a game fizzle out right before the final boss. Even when I do stay interested, I don't get that excited for the final boss because it means that the game is effectively over.
